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Alexandria Motorcoach Resources
Alexandria welcomes motorcoaches with free parking options and user-friendly resources. Designated loading and unloading areas and short-term and long-term parking options are available with convenient online resources, maps and suggestions to make visiting Alexandria easy.
Motorcoach Loading and Parking Map
Motorcoach parking in historic Old Town Alexandria requires a parking permit that can be obtained through online registration.
Request Your Motorcoach Parking Permit and see how simple it can be. Additional free, unreserved parking locations are available within three miles of Old Town. Paid short-term and long-term parking are also available, and require advance reservation. Please review our approved motorcoach areas below.
Motorcoach Loading & Unloading
Active loading and unloading for motorcoaches is allowed only in designated areas throughout the historic district. For your convenience, we have provided a list of approved locations closest to nearby attractions. Please be aware that the Alexandria Police Department will strictly enforce any violations.
The Waterfront and Torpedo Factory Art Center (closed through November 2018 due to the construction of the new park area at the foot of King Street)
Unit block of King Street (one space), north side, westbound, behind King Street Trolley. Do not load/unload on Union or Cameron streets.
Market Square, Historic District Restaurants, Visitors Center, or Walking Tours
300 block of King Street (five spaces), north side, west- bound between Fairfax and Royal streets.
Gadsby's Tavern Museum and Gadsby's Tavern Restaurant
100 block of North Royal Street (one space), west side, southbound between Cameron & King streets, directly in front of Gadsby's Tavern Museum & Restaurant.
Christ Church, Shopping & Dining or King Street Trolley
100 block of N. Washington Street (five spaces), between Cameron & King streets, west side, southbound EXCEPT 4-6pm Monday through Friday.
100 block of S. Washington Street (one space), between Prince and King streets, east side, northbound EXCEPT for 7-9am Monday through Friday. Do not block the DASH/MetroBus stop.
The Lyceum:
200 block of S. Washington Street (one space), west side, southbound EXCEPT 4-6pm Monday thru Friday
Motorcoach Parking
Motorcoach parking is permitted in designated locations only. Due to the sensitivity of our historic architecture, idling is not permitted when parked. Engines must be turned off. Parking is permitted at the following locations:
Short-Term Parking
Reserved short-term parking with a free permit is available:
Waterfront/Robinson Terminal: 500 block of North Union Street. Five spaces between Oronoco and Pendleton streets, east side, northbound; Four-hour parking on a first-come, first-served basis. Register
North Old Town: 900 block of North St. Aspah Street. Three spaces, west side, southbound: Four-hour parking on a first-come, first-served basis. Register
Long-Term/Overnight Parking
Reserved long-term/overnight parking for a fee of between $18 and $45 per 24-hour period is available:
George Washington Masonic Memorial: 101 Callahan Drive, 25 spaces. Permits must be obtained in advance from the City of Alexandria. Register here.
Thank you for visiting Alexandria. We appreciate your business and wish you a pleasant stay. Please obey our rules and regulations, as violations will be strictly enforced.
Idling longer than 15 minutes is subject to a $50 fine. Motorcoaches parked in designated spots must turn off their engines.
Double parking, stopping so as to obstruct traffic and stopping to load or unload passengers in the traveled portion of any street are prohibited and subject to a $200 fine.
Tour and sight-seeing motorcoaches may not use locations other than designated parking spaces and are subject to a $100 fine.
Motorcoaches planning to travel on the George Washington Memorial Parkway must be aware of numerous low clearance bridges on the parkway. You can view more information by visiting the National Park Service website at nps.gov/gwmp or you may call the permit Park Ranger at 703-289-2516 for general inquiries or questions.
For additional assistance, email MFallon@VisitAlexVA.com. Administrative office hours are 9 a.m. - 5 p.m., Monday through Friday. Additionally, a 24 hour information hotline from the City of Alexandria can be reached by calling 703-746-4020.
MAP EXPLORER The Maps Explorer is an interactive map to find hotels, restaurants and things to do and...... MORE ›


Home | Resource Centre | Asset Finance Is On The Up: Could You Benefit?
A new report from the Finance & Leasing Association has revealed an encouraging rise in asset finance use across a number of different sectors.
More businesses are now benefiting from the access to the right equipment and machinery which will enable them to deliver an improved service to their customers. These solutions range from hire purchase to finance leases and asset refinance. This spectrum of flexible solutions facilitates business growth previously unavailable due to the capital investment of new assets.
This infographic includes the headline statistics from the report, along with the steps you can take to improve your business using asset finance.


I've always enjoyed visiting art museums and appreciating the beauty of color and texture in the world around me. My favorite medium is oils because the colors are so vivid. Painting for me is an expression of my emotions. I love to apply the paint with heavy brushstrokes. I'm influenced by the work of the impressionist painters especially Van Gogh and Monet. I've taken a few art courses at Jefferson College, Southeast Missouri State University, and Mount Mercy University, but I pursued my degrees in accounting and business. I am a juried member of the Greater St. Louis Art Association and serve as the Vice President of the organization. Also, I am a member of the Jefferson County Art Guild. I received the People's Choice award for my painting, "Alone" that I exhibited at Framations Art Gallery.
I was born in Granite City, IL and grew up on a farm, outside of Collinsville. Most of my summers were spent on a farm outside of Troy, IL, owned by my grandparents and uncle. I've been a resident of the Troy area off and on since 1978. I have an undergraduate degree from SIUE and an graduate degree from Webster University. I spent nearly 30 years in the Human Resources field.
I loved to draw as a child but was not fond of using color. I drifted away from art until the day I put the notation on my bucket list "learn to do oil painting". After retiring in 2000, I started on that bucket list. It took until 2004 to get back to art. I got over my fear of using color and while oil is my favorite medium, along the way I learned that I cal also do pastels, watercolor, and acrylics.
Elisha Dasenbrock creates watercolor paintings on board. The boards are a hard, smooth surface which does not absorb the paint. This causes many challenges, but also many advantages. One such advantage is that the surface aids Dasenbrock in creating loose, impressionistic paintings. Claybord also allows her the option of not framing the finished piece.
Dasenbrock uses a limited palette technique, preferring to mix her secondary and tertiary colors. A limited palette consists of 4-6 colors. There are endless variations. Currently, Dasenbrock uses the three primary colors of red, blue, and yellow as well as a darker color to add deep shadow. Dasenbrock focused on the figure and portrait while getting her BFA in watercolor, however, she now paints primarily animals. She still enjoys portraits and figure work, but animals allow her to explore a more playful side of her art. She been in many shows, Morpho Gallery's Up and Coming show, several Illinois Watercolor Society juried exhibitions, and a solo show at Flavor's Cafe and Wine Bar to name a few. Dasenbrock won Juror's Choice at mySLart.org's monthly 33 show in the summer of 2017. She's been featured on EmptyEasel.com, has hung her work at Flavor's Cafe and Wine Bar in Breese, IL, Barnes and Noble, Nudge in Highland, IL, mySLart, Cafe Con Leche and The Bowery Art Gallery in Appalachicola, FL, Art On The Creeks in Rogers, AR, and hopefully your house.
Growing up in Missouri, I love the seasons and spend much of my time outdoors. As long as I can remember, I was drawn to creating art. I studied art in college, then began a long career in graphic arts and printing. I love nature, many days you will likely find me outdoors creating field studies. I delight in responding to the surrounding environment and ever-changing light.
Since 2017, I have been able to dedicate to my art full time with goals to work on art endeavors daily. I am continuously working to absorb knowledge via books, instructional videos, fellow artists and art groups. I had my first one person show in April 2018 at Mingo National Wildlife Refuge. This park is endless inspiration and I visit often.


Hello everyone! My birthday is incredibly soon, and I have been given a fantastic joint present by my fellow bloggers Una and Freddie, and two of my other best friends from school!
I love this brush already. It's firm but it's still soft, and it easily blends shades into my crease, giving my eye looks a nice finish. It's quite a big dome-shaped brush, so I do find it difficult to be very precise with it, but I guess that's because its function is to work above the crease! I think it's a great brush and I would definitely recommend it.
What have you got on your birthday wishlist? Let us know!
They look lovely, Happy belated birthday!
Happy birthday! But so jealous that you have a Lorac pro palette. They look amazing!


In my humble opinion, amidst a bustling life in New York City, there's no finer luxury than the spa day. I don't mean to say that going to a spa is the most luxurious thing to do in New York—although that case could easily be made. What I mean is this: anyone familiar with the typical lifestyle of a go-getting, non-stop New Yorker knows that nothing compares to a tried and true spa day. Last month, I discovered one such escape at Savor Beauty + Spa's newest (and third overall) location in New York's Upper West Side neighborhood.
Inside, you're immediately welcomed into a bright space that's been skillfully arranged to work with its deceivingly small square footage. Founded by Angela Jia Kim, the K-beauty destination boasts a full line of 100 percent natural, organic and shoppable products. All products are also used for an array of treatments, which include a menu of facials, massages and makeup appointments.
Once you've chosen your service—which can, of course, be personalized according to skin type and preference—you'll head to a private, cheerful room towards the back of the space. Each room is accented with a heavenly ceiling of fluffy white clouds, something you come to decidedly appreciate in the middle of a transformative caviar facial and massage.
So to my fellow city dwellers and all around hard workers: take a well-deserved New York minute to indulge in the beauty practices of Savor. On a day-to-day basis it can be easy to overlook the small things and to skip stopping to smell the flowers. But in this case, take my word for it: it'll be worth your time to savor this experience.


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georgia-king
Behind the Scenes of Austenland With Georgia King
You may recognize Georgia King as the all-American, sweet-as-honey Goldie Clemmens on Ryan Murphy's sadly canceled, The New Normal. But these days, the British actress (Yes, that was one hell of a good American accent!) can be seen sipping tea and rocking petticoats and curly tendrils in the film Austenland. I was an English major,so the movie, which is about a Jane Austen uber-fan who immerses herself in a world where Mr. Darcy is an actual possibility, is near and dear to my heart. King plays a fellow "Austenland" resident, alongside fellow Jane-ites Keri Russell and Jennifer Coolidge. She took time out of her busy schedule—she's directing Your Hands, a dramedy about a woman on her post-breakup journey, and launched a KickStarter campaign to raise funds—to share fun, behind-the-scenes gossip from the set. "I take sports very seriously, whether I have a bonnet on or not. I was constricted with that corset as well, but I had some amazing badminton swing attempts. I'm a massive sports fan and have a lot of energy, so I'm always running around doing crazy amounts of exercise. You've got to keep fit on set, any way you can. We didn't have a gym on
By Caitlin Brody
You Have to See These Photos of a Fan Freaking Out Over Meeting John Stamos! Plus, Lots of The New Normal Scoop!
After a very rough morning hearing the news about Valerie Harper, I needed some laughter and a few light moments. Leave it to John Stamos and the cast of NBC's The New Normal at the PaleyFest (sponsored by Hulu Plus, Samsung Galaxy, and Samsung SmartTV) to come through and leave me in hysterics. Why? Read on! Getting to see my new red-carpet BFF, Andrew Rannells, is always a joy—especially when he utters ridiculously hysterical lines like, "I feel a little bit [dressed] like a gay politician." I call it dapper. You're a #GlamourDo, Andrew...a Glamour Do. Meanwhile, creator and executive producer Ali Adler gushed to me about working with John Stamos. "If you told me when I was young that I'd be taking pictures on the red carpet with John Stamos, I would have been living an easier next few years! He's a tremendous person, and yes, he's super-duper handsome, but he's an amazing man." (Yeah, no kidding. See what he did below when a fan freaked out last night!) For those wanting to know when Goldie is going to give birth to David and Bryan's little boy...well, Adler teased that "the show we're shooting tomorrow, there's a birth, so
We Played Ryan Murphy Trivia With the Casts of Glee and The New Normal. See How They Did!
I know we're all supposed to be sad that awards season is now over, but fear not, you guys, because it's just the beginning of one of the best times of the year for TV lovers—the 30th annual celebration of PaleyFest! PaleyFest, named after broadcasting pioneer William S. Paley, kicked off its two-week extravaganza Wednesday night with the inaugural PaleyFest Icon Award honoring Ryan Murphy, the man behind Glee, The New Normal, Popular, Nip/Tuck, and many others. I caught up with the casts of those shows to see how well they know their boss—or do they? How cute is everyone?! The event, presented exclusively by Samsung Galaxy, gave attendees the chance to check out the latest offerings from the brand, including the Samsung Galaxy Note II, Samsung Galaxy Camera, and others. Check out more pics from the red carpet and inside the Paley Center for Media. The gorgeous Naya Rivera (Santana) wearing the most perfect shade of red lipstick ever. She had lots to say about her hookup with Quinn—be on the lookout for that next week! The New Normal (and Girls star!) Andrew Rannells. Is it wrong I want to make him my BFF, and I've met him only
Hilarious: I Asked Celebs to Share Their Fake People's Choice Awards "OMG, I Won!" Poses, and They DID!
I still can't believe I got Kaley Cuco, Lucy Hale, Anthony Anderson, Jennifer Morrison, and Georgia King to do THIS. But let me explain first, shall I? The People's Choice Awards, which air tonight at 9/8c on CBS, are the first awards show of 2013, but—depending on who you talk to—they aren't as meaningful as winning, say, an Oscar. And because the stars know if they won or not before the ceremony, I decided to have a little fun and asked some celebs to give me their best fake, "OMG! I won!" reaction face. Maybe there should be an extra award for that... The Best Fake "OMG! I WON!" Reaction at the People's Choice Awards Kaley Cuoco Kaley is hosting the People's Choice Awards this year, and The Big Bang Theory is nominated for Favorite Network TV Comedy. Kaley is also individually nominated for Favorite Comedic TV Actress, so we think she has more than a fair shot of giving this reaction on stage. Anthony Anderson Anderson's sitcom, Guys with Kids, is nominated for Favorite New TV Comedy. You guys should have seen Anderson's reaction to that news in person during the nominations. The guy freaked out like he won
Five Powerful Ladies in Hollywood Share Their Career Advice With Us
As hard as it is to hear the word "No," it's even harder to dust yourself off and try, try (and try!) again. Actresses are no different. In fact, they are some of the most driven people because they face more rejection than just about anyone. Take a note from these five powerful women in Hollywood, who I caught up with yesterday at The Hollywood Reporter's Women in Entertainment Breakfast presented by Lifetime at the Beverly Hills Hotel. Kerry Washington (Scandal) "I think it's so important to have a group of women you can count on who understand the journey you're on. Faith is also very important. I believe in my own path and that rejection is God's projection. What is meant for you is meant for you." Georgia King (The New Normal) "It takes a lot of strength to believe in yourself and be confident in who you are, especially in this industry where it's so personal. But the minute you stop thinking about yourself, the less you panic about yourself. The more you do for other people, the better off you will be." Ellie Kemper (The Office) "Accepting that there are going to be setbacks takes a lot

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In-room / suite treatments on requests. Other rates apply for such treatments (double the price of what is in the pricelist + travel expenses where applicable). For in-room / suite treatments expect 20 minutes before and after treatment to facilitate for the treatment equipment, and cleaning afterwards.
We offer our VIP guests to use fitness center and facilities at Artesia Training at Majorstuen (price stated on request).
If you seek a therapist with specific language skills, make us aware of it when booking your treatment. Our highly qualified and international therapists speak many languages: Norwegian, Swedish, Danish, English, German, Spanish, French, Russian, Hebrew and Arabic.
At weekends, Grand Hotel Oslo's guests have access to Artesia's facilities for a payment of NOK 300, and free access when booking 55/60 minutes of treatment on the same day. This also requires availbility.
For bookings, please email us at booking@artesia.no or call +47 22825000.


In Photoshop Elements, you can change the image magnification onscreen, so you can easily work with images of any pixel dimensions. A 620 x 400‑pixel image displayed on …... You can change the pixel size by changing the W/H from cm to pixels. But I do prefer the CS6 dialogue box, where you can see what size you get in cm when changing the pixel dimensions. But I do prefer the CS6 dialogue box, where you can see what size you get in cm when changing the pixel dimensions.
17/01/2012 · Megapixels is the number of pixels in an image (the x dimension multiplied by the y dimension, divided by 1000000). So all you need to do is to reduce the size of the image by rescaling. how to change a battery in a 2013 ford escape This is good if you want change value only for one property and keep units in other fields. Or you can simply rewrite "pt" to "px" Fastest way to unit settings is doubleclick on ruler.
You can change the pixel size by changing the W/H from cm to pixels. But I do prefer the CS6 dialogue box, where you can see what size you get in cm when changing the pixel dimensions. But I do prefer the CS6 dialogue box, where you can see what size you get in cm when changing the pixel dimensions.
Photoshop :: Save For Web In Action - Change Output To Pixel Width Jan 28, 2013. We do hundreds of images for our main client for print purposes.
17/01/2012 · Megapixels is the number of pixels in an image (the x dimension multiplied by the y dimension, divided by 1000000). So all you need to do is to reduce the size of the image by rescaling.
Is there a way to see the width to height ratio of pixels in Photoshop? I think I saw it some other day, but I can't find it now. I think I saw it some other day, but I can't find it now. Something like "2:1 pixel ratio" means that the picture is exactly twice as wide as high.


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How refresher training can cut workroom accidents and increase output
Typically, putting in a request for some refresher training for your staff can be seen as a possible insult. It could perhaps be perceived as suggesting to your staff that the job they?ve been doing for the last year or so simply isn't good enough. But in the advancing worlds of industry, office and social work spaces, every member of staff, no matter what role they have, can benefit from some effective refresher training.
Don?t wait for a hazardous incident before scheduling refresher training
According to the government's Health and Safety Executive, an estimated 621, 000 UK workers suffered from a serious injury in the last year alone. Though the causes of these incidents are unknown, this figure alone should be enough motivation to consider some intensive safety, workplace and refresher training for your staff members. Especially in industries such as haulage, where the potential for dangerous incidents at work is at all-time high.
Don?t wait for an injury in your workplace before scheduling training, prevent it.
Train yourself, not just your staff
Staff members that work together in the same space for longer periods of time tend to build up a sense of community in their workplace. The more they get to know each other, the less roles are defined, and everyone becomes that little bit more equal.
And while this helps to promote the benefits of a healthy and communicative working environment, it can also have a negative impact on the respect your team members have for you as a leader.
Taking the time to run through the safety procedures, routines and order of service with your staff members can help to reassert yourself as a management figure as well as refreshing your own memory too.
Avoid routine and complacency
Almost every workspace will have team members with a deep-set routine. Perhaps they?ve worked there for a long period, perhaps they feel they work better if every day is organised, or perhaps this is the order they believe tasks should be completed in.
But existing routines can lead to complacency and a tendency for laziness in the workplace which, when you're handling heavy machinery and dangerous equipment, is not a safe habit to fall into.
Refresher training can help to motivate your staff into attempting new styles of working, to re-establish the key values they were taught when they first began the job, and to encourage a break from the norm. This might just help them to identify problems in their existing routine, habits that go against their initial training, and motivate them to change.
Get the best out of existing staff members
A physical working routine can often lead to a mental rut as well, where your workforce has discarded their drive for improvement, and instead settle for the jobs they know how to do.
As part of their refresher training, why not offer them the option of first aid training as well encouraging them to step up and take on a little extra responsibility at work. This can give your team members the motivation to do something different for the day, to educate themselves in a new field, and allow them to help you make your business a safer place to work.
This can also provide you with a chance to talk to your staff about issues that concern them or that they feel are distressing health and safety issues cover all aspects of your workplace, including mental health and personal safety.
Keep up with new technology and advancement
For a company, such as Daltons Wadkin, which deals in heavy wood working machinery, new advances in technology are being introduced to us every day.
Using specialised courses of refresher training, you can help to remind your staff members of the safest procedures to use when handling such machinery whether it's a piece of kit they?ve used for years, or a new development they?re still getting to grips with.
Not only will this help to encourage safer engagement with these technologies, it also helps to promote your business as one that is fully prepared to take on new advancements and technological changes to your industry.
Highlight existing problems and potential hazards in your workplace
By spending the week before your refresher training observing how your office or workforce operate, you get the chance to identify the most urgent health and safety issues that need resolving.
Whether it's making a note of the incidents themselves or simply spending a little longer on that portion of your training, understanding the hazards or potential dangers facing your staff can help you to prevent them from the inside out.
Scheduling a day of refresher training for your staff is an option every working industry should take. Not only can it help to prevent unsafe working environments and incorrect procedures, it can also help you to get the most out of your staff, with the knowledge they already have.
Alex Dalton is managing director of Daltons Wadkin. Founded in 1901, Daltons Wadkin is the UK's longest established distributors and manufacturers of industrial woodworking machinery.
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A party that attracts new support from a segment of the electorate tends to repel part of its old coalition. As the 1990s began, political pundits were opining that Republicans had a lock on the Electoral College—just before Bill Clinton, with assistance from Ross Perot, picked the lock and ripped open the door. Democrats won the popular vote in four of the five next presidential elections.
Republicans similarly embarrassed the pundits who said two decades ago that Democrats had a lock on the House of Representatives. Republicans won the most popular votes and most seats in seven of the nine congressional elections beginning in 1994.
As a result, the Republican core going into the 2012 election is no longer northern Protestants but white, married Christians. If you compare John McCain's 2008 percentages with the senior Bush's in 1988, you find Republicans suffering double-digit losses in states dominated by giant, culturally non-Southern metropolitan areas—New England, New York and down the I-95 corridor through New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia and then down to Florida.
Republicans found support similarly sparse in Illinois, Michigan and (though the loss here seems temporary) Indiana, as well as in California, Nevada and Barack Obama's native Hawaii. Latino immigrants have added Democratic votes in most of these places, and out-migrating, native-born Americans have subtracted Republican votes.
But when you look at this map you also see areas where Mr. McCain ran even with or better than George H.W. Bush, notably the (Andrew) Jacksonian belt settled by Scots-Irish in the 18th and 19th centuries, running southwest from West Virginia through Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana and Oklahoma. Western Pennsylvania and rural Texas, which remained solidly Democratic in the 1980s, have become solidly Republican.


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← Too much to do
It's Monday? The 25th? →
Judge Durkin orders a marriage
Monday, 25 November 2013 21:49:15 CST David-Braverman Chicago, Politics (0)
Illinois' marriage equality act doesn't take effect for 7 months, but Federal District Judge Thomas Durkin (and I) believes the law's passage is enough to let a couple settle their affairs as they intended:
Vernita Gray and Patricia Ewert, will be issued their license early by the Cook County clerk's office because one of the women is currently battling terminal cancer, their attorneys said.
County Clerk David Orr said he would comply with the order by U.S. District Judge Thomas M. Durkin
Orr said he also welcomed the ruling.
"As a supporter of same-sex marriage, I'm pleased Judge Durkin granted relief to Patricia Ewert and Vernita Gray in this difficult time," he said in a statement.
This is the right result. The couple have a compelling reason to marry, and a delay would needlessly complicate their lives even though marriage will be generally available to all couples in just a few months. There's a little part of me that says the state marriage law should prevail here, but a bigger part of me that demands to know why the legislature put in an 8-month delay in the law's implementation. It's not like any of the county clerks has to remodel their offices to accommodate marriage equality; they just have to produce marriage licenses.
So, good on Judge Durkin. This is not the first time I've wanted to buy the man a drink. I expect it won't be the last.
Tags : US Politics
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Illinois' marriage equality act doesn't take effect for 7 months, but Federal District Judge Thomas
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The Chicago Bar Association has released its recommendations for judicial retentions in the upcoming
Marriage equality fait accompli
On Monday, the Supreme Court denied certiorari to lower-court rulings upholding marriage equality in


You are far too diplomatic in your description of the Marachel Foche from August Cellar. The group agreed - it smelled like goat! One guest even insisted that the wine tasted like it had been corked.
The wine is certainly interesting. But if you are sensitive to barnyard smells, proceed with caution.
Goat wine? I can't wait to go to one of your parties!
Yea, I thought the Corvallis Bureau had it made with crappy Indonesian wine...but that's got nothing on goat wine. Or, is it unicorn wine?
I love that wine. I have the 02, 03, which I now need to replace and the 04. It's a wild wine, in multiple senses of the word and certainly not for everyone. The wine wasn't corked, it's got character.
The most annoying part of the label to me is the bit about "we're all philosophers" or however it's put. We're not. I have two degrees in philosophy and so maybe I'm taking in personally, but its similar to when they had the Dalton character (Swayze) from Roadhouse have a MA in philosophy. I get a little po'ed at that.
Now I'm even more confused. Are you suggesting that Patrick Swazey is the goat? I think my mind was just blown.


In May 2017, I hired Musca Law Firm to represent me in a pending DUI case paying them $10,000 USD. After my deposit had cleared, I was assigned to one of the firms attorneys to whom I spoke with in June. Several months later, after not hearing from this attorney, I phoned and spoke with him in Sept. He did not know who I was nor anything about my case. He actually got my case folder out and read it out loud for an hour while he had me on the phone telling me not to worry that he will be able to get this dropped. I waited until Nov and after not hearing anything, I phoned and spoke to the same attorney. He said he was waiting on a video tape from the police dept. I stressed to him that it had been 6 months and the only thing he had done was to push my court date out month after month. When he looked into my file, there was the video request that was never mailed. In Jan, I phoned again and was told this attorney is no longer with the firm and was given a 2nd attorney who had no idea who I was and knew nothing of my case. He located my video and actually kept me on the phone while watching it. Fast forward to June 2018. After 1 year and month-after-month of Musca Law Firm pushing my case out, I was sentenced to another year of my driver's license being revoked that would have run concurrently with my DMV license suspension back in June 2017, had Musca Law Firm upheld their fiduciary duty to me as a client. Musca Law Firm has cost me another year of no driving privileges due to their nonchalant attitude toward my case, more stress, and soon to be more out-of-pocket expenses. Had they just completed the task at hand in a timely manner that I trusted and paid them $10,000 to do, I would not be writing this negative review. After this disappointing and very expensive experience, I would highly suggest that you consider another law firm. There are plenty of good firms out there that will give you the attention to your case that you deserve. Musca Law is just not one of them.


text:
High-frequency LC VCO design using capacitive degeneration
Byunghoo Jung, Ramesh Harjani
In this paper, we evaluate the high-frequency performance limitations of traditional LC voltage-controlled oscillators (VCOs) that use a cross-coupled negative resistance cell and propose a new topology that overcomes these limitations. The proposed cell is based on a capacitively emitter degenerated topology which uses a cross-coupled MOS pair as the degeneration cell. The cross-coupled MOS pair contributes additional conductance and results in a higher maximum attainable oscillation frequency and better negative resistance characteristics as compared to the other topologies at high frequencies. These properties combined with its small effective capacitance enable low-power low-noise high-frequency VCO implementations. The proposed topology is demonstrated through a 20-GHz fully integrated LC VCO implemented in the IBM SiGe 0.25-μm BiCMOS process. A comparison of its figure of merit with previously reported 20-GHz VCOs shows the effectiveness of the proposed topology.
IEEE Journal of Solid-State Circuits
https://doi.org/10.1109/JSSC.2004.835643
Manuscript received April 16, 2004; revised July 16, 2004. This work was supported in part by a grant from the Semiconductor Research Corporation. The authors are with the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN 55455 USA (e-mail: harjani@ece.umn.edu). Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/JSSC.2004.835643
BiCMOS integrated circuits
Capacitive degeneration
High-frequency LC oscillators
Negative resistance cell
Voltage-controlled oscillators (VCOs)
10.1109/JSSC.2004.835643
Dive into the research topics of 'High-frequency LC VCO design using capacitive degeneration'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.
Variable frequency oscillators Engineering & Materials Science 100%
Topology Engineering & Materials Science 60%
Negative resistance Engineering & Materials Science 50%
Jung, B., & Harjani, R. (2004). High-frequency LC VCO design using capacitive degeneration. IEEE Journal of Solid-State Circuits, 39(12), 2359-2370. https://doi.org/10.1109/JSSC.2004.835643
High-frequency LC VCO design using capacitive degeneration. / Jung, Byunghoo; Harjani, Ramesh.
In: IEEE Journal of Solid-State Circuits, Vol. 39, No. 12, 12.2004, p. 2359-2370.
Jung, B & Harjani, R 2004, 'High-frequency LC VCO design using capacitive degeneration', IEEE Journal of Solid-State Circuits, vol. 39, no. 12, pp. 2359-2370. https://doi.org/10.1109/JSSC.2004.835643
Jung B, Harjani R. High-frequency LC VCO design using capacitive degeneration. IEEE Journal of Solid-State Circuits. 2004 Dec;39(12):2359-2370. doi: 10.1109/JSSC.2004.835643
Jung, Byunghoo ; Harjani, Ramesh. / High-frequency LC VCO design using capacitive degeneration. In: IEEE Journal of Solid-State Circuits. 2004 ; Vol. 39, No. 12. pp. 2359-2370.
@article{468d9655fb9a44589d6c92dcd732953a,
title = "High-frequency LC VCO design using capacitive degeneration",
abstract = "In this paper, we evaluate the high-frequency performance limitations of traditional LC voltage-controlled oscillators (VCOs) that use a cross-coupled negative resistance cell and propose a new topology that overcomes these limitations. The proposed cell is based on a capacitively emitter degenerated topology which uses a cross-coupled MOS pair as the degeneration cell. The cross-coupled MOS pair contributes additional conductance and results in a higher maximum attainable oscillation frequency and better negative resistance characteristics as compared to the other topologies at high frequencies. These properties combined with its small effective capacitance enable low-power low-noise high-frequency VCO implementations. The proposed topology is demonstrated through a 20-GHz fully integrated LC VCO implemented in the IBM SiGe 0.25-μm BiCMOS process. A comparison of its figure of merit with previously reported 20-GHz VCOs shows the effectiveness of the proposed topology.",
keywords = "Analog integrated circuits, BiCMOS integrated circuits, Capacitive degeneration, High-frequency LC oscillators, Negative resistance cell, Voltage-controlled oscillators (VCOs)",
author = "Byunghoo Jung and Ramesh Harjani",
note = "Funding Information: Manuscript received April 16, 2004; revised July 16, 2004. This work was supported in part by a grant from the Semiconductor Research Corporation. The authors are with the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN 55455 USA (e-mail: harjani@ece.umn.edu). Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/JSSC.2004.835643",
doi = "10.1109/JSSC.2004.835643",
journal = "IEEE Journal of Solid-State Circuits",
T1 - High-frequency LC VCO design using capacitive degeneration
AU - Jung, Byunghoo
AU - Harjani, Ramesh
N1 - Funding Information: Manuscript received April 16, 2004; revised July 16, 2004. This work was supported in part by a grant from the Semiconductor Research Corporation. The authors are with the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN 55455 USA (e-mail: harjani@ece.umn.edu). Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/JSSC.2004.835643
N2 - In this paper, we evaluate the high-frequency performance limitations of traditional LC voltage-controlled oscillators (VCOs) that use a cross-coupled negative resistance cell and propose a new topology that overcomes these limitations. The proposed cell is based on a capacitively emitter degenerated topology which uses a cross-coupled MOS pair as the degeneration cell. The cross-coupled MOS pair contributes additional conductance and results in a higher maximum attainable oscillation frequency and better negative resistance characteristics as compared to the other topologies at high frequencies. These properties combined with its small effective capacitance enable low-power low-noise high-frequency VCO implementations. The proposed topology is demonstrated through a 20-GHz fully integrated LC VCO implemented in the IBM SiGe 0.25-μm BiCMOS process. A comparison of its figure of merit with previously reported 20-GHz VCOs shows the effectiveness of the proposed topology.
AB - In this paper, we evaluate the high-frequency performance limitations of traditional LC voltage-controlled oscillators (VCOs) that use a cross-coupled negative resistance cell and propose a new topology that overcomes these limitations. The proposed cell is based on a capacitively emitter degenerated topology which uses a cross-coupled MOS pair as the degeneration cell. The cross-coupled MOS pair contributes additional conductance and results in a higher maximum attainable oscillation frequency and better negative resistance characteristics as compared to the other topologies at high frequencies. These properties combined with its small effective capacitance enable low-power low-noise high-frequency VCO implementations. The proposed topology is demonstrated through a 20-GHz fully integrated LC VCO implemented in the IBM SiGe 0.25-μm BiCMOS process. A comparison of its figure of merit with previously reported 20-GHz VCOs shows the effectiveness of the proposed topology.
KW - Analog integrated circuits
KW - BiCMOS integrated circuits
KW - Capacitive degeneration
KW - High-frequency LC oscillators
KW - Negative resistance cell
KW - Voltage-controlled oscillators (VCOs)
U2 - 10.1109/JSSC.2004.835643
DO - 10.1109/JSSC.2004.835643
JO - IEEE Journal of Solid-State Circuits
JF - IEEE Journal of Solid-State Circuits


text:
Qiddist Ashé
28, Executive Director of Black Oregon Land Trust
2022 Prize Winner
On a fall morning on a farm in the Columbia River Gorge, Qiddist Ashé has already fed the goats, harvested herbs for medicine-making, and tended to the farm cat Sheba, who just gave birth to a litter of five kittens. Ashé is weeks away from purchasing a nearby 10-acre farm as the co-founder and executive director of the Black Oregon Land Trust.
But Ashé, 28, isn't ready to call herself a farmer. It's a matter of humility.
"I want to give a lot of reverence to the people pulling 10-hour days with their hands in the soil," she says. "I'm a 'budding land steward' and learning so much from my friends and colleagues."
That same morning, she had a handful of non-agrarian tasks as well, including working on a grant application for BOLT, a photo shoot, and meeting with other Black land stewards in the area. BOLT, which she started two years ago, creates opportunities for Black farmers in Oregon to connect with each other, access land, and build generational health and wealth.
In the most recent U.S. Department of Agricultural census, only 64 of Oregon's 67,000 farm producers were Black. Although this strikes Ashé as an undercount, her visibility work has been effective: "I just talked to a farmer out in Eastern Oregon who told me, 'I had no idea there were other Black farmers here.'"
The lack of diversity on Oregon farms traces back to the state's founding: An 1857 law excluded African Americans from settling in the territory.
Ashé lives in a 140-square-foot tiny home perched on the 19-acre Mudbone Grown farm in Corbett, which is growing crops such as greens, beans, flowers and squash this fall. Youth organizations and volunteer groups visit weekly—a benefit of being so close to the eastern outskirts of Portland.
"Qiddist approaches her work with a spirit of abundance, and this has been an inspiration for me," says Mudbone co-owner Shantae Johnson. "She works with an open hand and heart."
Growing up in Southwest Portland, Ashé hosted an environmental club in her parents' backyard in elementary school. At 15, she journaled about wanting to raise her future children communally and grow her own food.
Before she started BOLT, Ashé was an elementary school teacher and then a midwife, attending hundreds of births (just the one feline birth so far). She sees BOLT as a continuation of that work: making sure mothers and children are well-fed, educated and have opportunities to build wealth. "All of these threads came together with land at the core."
She also draws from her birth work when she conceptualizes the growth of BOLT itself. She tries to resist the pressure to always be "scaling up" while fundraising and pitching to donors, and instead move at the "pace of the relationship."
"We've done a lot in two years, but we're still young," she says. "We have to think about what is sustainable for each other and for the earth."
Support Qiddist's work.


text:
package aimax.osm.gui.swing.viewer;

import java.awt.BasicStroke;
import java.awt.Color;
import java.awt.Graphics2D;
import java.awt.Image;
import java.awt.RenderingHints;

import aimax.osm.viewer.UColor;
import aimax.osm.viewer.UnifiedImageBuilder;

/**
 * Specialized image builder for AWT images.
 *
 * @author Ruediger Lunde
 */
public class AWTImageBuilder implements UnifiedImageBuilder<Image> {

	private Image result;
	private Graphics2D g2;
	boolean areaFillMode;

	@Override
	public void initialize(Image image) {
		result = image;
		g2 = (Graphics2D) image.getGraphics();
		g2.setRenderingHint(RenderingHints.KEY_ANTIALIASING,
				RenderingHints.VALUE_ANTIALIAS_ON);
	}

	/** Returns the width of the image under construction. */
	@Override
	public int getWidth() {
		return result.getWidth(null);
	}

	/** Returns the height of the image under construction. */
	@Override
	public int getHeight() {
		return result.getHeight(null);
	}

	@Override
	public void drawLine(int x1, int y1, int x2, int y2) {
		g2.drawLine(x1, y1, x2, y2);
	}

	@Override
	public void drawRect(int x, int y, int width, int height) {
		if (areaFillMode)
			g2.fillRect(x, y, width, height);
		else
			g2.drawRect(x, y, width, height);

	}

	@Override
	public void drawOval(int x, int y, int width, int height) {
		if (areaFillMode)
			g2.fillOval(x, y, width, height);
		else
			g2.drawOval(x, y, width, height);

	}

	@Override
	public void drawPolyline(int[] xPoints, int[] yPoints, int nPoints) {
		g2.drawPolyline(xPoints, yPoints, nPoints);

	}

	@Override
	public void drawPolygon(int[] xPoints, int[] yPoints, int nPoints) {
		if (areaFillMode)
			g2.fillPolygon(xPoints, yPoints, nPoints);
		else
			g2.drawPolygon(xPoints, yPoints, nPoints);

	}

	@Override
	public void drawString(String text, int x, int y) {
		g2.drawString(text, x, y);

	}

	@Override
	public Image getResult() {
		return result;
	}

	@Override
	public void setColor(UColor color) {
		g2.setColor(new Color(color.getRed(), color.getGreen(),
				color.getBlue(), color.getAlpha()));

	}

	@Override
	public void setLineStyle(boolean dashed, float width) {
		float dash[] = null;
		if (dashed) {
			dash = new float[] { width * 2f };
		}
		g2.setStroke(new BasicStroke(width, BasicStroke.CAP_ROUND,
				BasicStroke.JOIN_ROUND, 10.0f, dash, 0.0f));
	}

	@Override
	public void setAreaFilled(boolean value) {
		areaFillMode = value;

	}

	@Override
	public void setFontSize(float size) {
		g2.setFont(g2.getFont().deriveFont(size));
	}

	@Override
	public float getFontSize() {
		return g2.getFont().getSize();
	}

}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


text:
Self-Styled Siren
Gigi (1958): A Defense
Kate Aurthur's ranking of Best Picture winners is not the worst film list the Siren has ever seen, nor even the worst list she's seen on Buzzfeed. Several movies the Siren reveres did pretty well with Ms Aurthur. Rebecca sits at No. 20, The Best Years of Our Lives is No. 16, It Happened One Night cracks the top 10 at No. 8 and at No. 1 is All About Eve. Any group this large must elicit a correspondingly large amount of disagreement; that is why lists are such reliable traffic-bait.
But the Siren almost didn't make it through, because the very first item, Ms Aurthur's choice for the worst Best Picture winner of all time, slapped her across the face like Joan Crawford on a rampage.
Yes, the creepiest, most pedophiliac movie ever to win Best Picture is this list's worst. How to define "worst" in this context, especially when judging Gigi — a movie musical some people love now, and certainly many people loved in 1958 — against films that were barely movies as we currently recognize them? [NB: I know, I know, forge ahead, please.] This list is, of course, totally subjective: I factored in my personal feelings about each movie, along with how well it has held up, how influential it is, and what it was up against. And then there's the ineffability of common wisdom, which I also have taken into account. No matter how I feel about Annie Hall or about Schindler's List, for example, I know I'm in a minority view in my dislike — and that matters. Not with Gigi, though, in which Leslie Caron plays a Parisian girl being trained to be a courtesan who ends up in a push-and-pull relationship with the much older Gaston (Louis Jordan) [sic]. This is the movie that gave us that disturbing cultural artifact, the song "Thank Heaven For Little Girls." If you want disturbing psychosexual movies from 1958, let's agree that Vertigo, which was nominated only for Best Art Direction and Best Sound, is preferable. To reiterate: Gigi is the worst.
Pitting Vertigo against Gigi underlines the reason George C. Scott refused to pick up his Oscars: In addition to calling the ceremony "a meat parade," he considered the idea of artists competing against one another to be absurd. He was not wrong. "Best" means something different for an Alfred Hitchcock thriller and a musical comedy from Vincente Minnelli and Lerner and Loewe. Then again, in cracking a joke, the author has accidentally made a point.
Vertigo, winner of the Sight and Sound "Greatest Film of All Time So Take That, Citizen Kane Award," concerns a troubled ex-policeman who falls in love with the gorgeous and possibly insane woman he is hired to tail. When he attempts to save her from her demons, she winds up dead, or so he thinks. Then the ex-cop spots his lost love's doppelganger on the street, and works to turn her into the image of that dead woman — dye job, new wardrobe, new makeup. The audience soon finds out it's the same woman, and she's sane, although the ex-cop is plainly not. Our two-timing woman loves this man, and tries frantically to please him, but in the end, she falls off a bell tower.
Now turn to Gigi, from Alan Jay Lerner's screenplay, based on Colette's story of a Parisian girl who's descended from a line of courtesans and is being taught to take over the family business. But Gigi's a lousy pupil, so far from considering a man's happiness that she does not hesitate to clean his clock when they're playing cards. The man in this instance is Gaston, a wealthy friend of the family who's always had mistresses and enjoys Gigi's company for the relief it brings from their demands, and from society's. One day Gaston realizes that Gigi is no longer a little girl, and that he's in love with her. He proposes to make her his latest mistress, although Gigi has spotted the flaw in this arrangement: It makes her disposable, and she's in love with Gaston, and doesn't want to be thrown away. Gaston in turn realizes that he loves Gigi too, and he doesn't want to force her into a life that is utterly wrong for her. And so he marries her instead.
As Cosmopolitan might say, two makeovers, two very different results.
And one question: Why is Gigi, which ends with its vivacious heroine happily married to a rich man who loves her the way she is, a sick-sick-sick movie; while Vertigo, in which the lovelorn female lead tries to turn herself into a fictional character and winds up stone dead, is a "preferable" depiction of male-female relations?
Let's see, which Oscar winners displayed sufficient rectitude to wind up near the top? Oh look, there's Silence of the Lambs at No. 5, now there's a movie that knows how to treat a lady. In The Godfather Part II, we have Kay Corleone getting the door slammed in her face as she tries to embrace her children; there's The Godfather, where Talia Shire's husband beats the living hell out of her; and let's not mention (because Ms Aurthur doesn't) the marital rape in Gone With the Wind (No. 11) and the speech in All About Eve about how a career means nothing for a woman if you turn over in bed and your man's not there.
Fine movies, sure, but you see the point: Why pick on Gigi? If it were just Buzzfeed, the Siren might have shrugged and called for madder music and stronger wine. But alas, the woods are full of people saying Gigi is terrifying, the worst, chauvinist and hateful (et tu, Vadim?).
This wounds the Siren to her feminist core. She loves Gigi.
Yes, Gigi, played by 27-year-old Leslie Caron, is very young. Louis Jourdan, who plays Gaston, was 37. In the original Colette novella, Gigi is 16 and Gaston is 33, and in 2014, that is, as Ms Aurthur states, considered creepy.
Gigi, however, is set in 1900 in Paris. In that time and world, it was not unheard-of for a 16-year-old to get married, much less was it considered too young to embark on a career as a courtesan. Scowling at the sexual morals of an earlier time is fun and all, but it's not an especially rewarding critical approach.
Let's look at "Thank Heaven For Little Girls," the song that freaks out Buzzfeed. These are not complicated lyrics, but the Siren's emphasizing some salient lines anyway:
Thank heaven for little girls
For little girls get bigger every day.
They grow up in the most delightful way.
Those little eyes so helpless and appealing
One day will flash and send you crashing through the ceiling.
Thank heaven for them all,
No matter where no matter who
Without them, what would little boys do?
Thank heaven . . . thank heaven . . .
Thank heaven for little girls!
Maybe you don't want Maurice Chevalier, who turned 70 during filming, singing about little girls, period. But he isn't saying, "Thank heaven for little girls because I want to have sex with them," which would of course be "pedophiliac" and horrifying in many eras besides our own. The lyrics say "I like little girls because they grow up into beautiful women." In other words this song, a frequent target of the irretrievably literal-minded, is the senior citizen who coos at your cute kid, "That one's gonna be a heartbreaker." If the correct response to such a sally is to smash the old buzzard over the head with your handbag and shriek "Get away from my child, you psychopath!!" then the Siren freely admits she's been doing it wrong.
Furthermore (and the Siren can't believe she has to point this out) there is not a single act of rape, whether statutory or not, in this film. No character shows a sexual interest in girls under 16, and that includes Chevalier as Honore Lachaille. It's the opposite of pedophilia: People wait until they're old enough by the Parisian standards of the time, and that's that.
Up until the point where Gaston takes a look at Gigi in a grown-up dress and realizes she's a young woman, he has no romantic or sexual interest in her. She's a chum. She's fun. And when she does show up in the dress, happy and proud as all teenagers are when they put on the trappings of an adult, Gaston's reaction isn't "hubba-hubba." He yells at Gigi that she looks "like an organ-grinder's monkey." If a 16-year-old and a 33-year-old in love is disturbing, hey, here you go — Gaston is disturbed when confronted with a playmate who's suddenly attractive. They have a blistering row and he stomps off, only to realize that as Gigi has grown up, so have his feelings.
Minnelli probably would have loved to direct My Fair Lady, but that film couldn't be made until the record-breaking Broadway run was over. So he took on Gigi, which tracks the other musical so closely that dear old Bosley Crowther suggested Lerner and Loewe might want to sue themselves. (Ms Aurthur has the backlot-bound, slower and stiffer My Fair Lady at no. 15, in evident indifference both to the plot similarities and the fact that Eliza Doolittle is also a teenager, plus Henry Higgins is 20 years older than Eliza and is her teacher to boot.) Minnelli wanted to bring fin de siecle Paris and caricaturist Sem to life. Along with production designer Cecil Beaton (and despite Charles Walters, who had to take charge of some post-production reshoots), Minnelli did the impossible. He made Paris look even more beautiful than it is.
He did the same for every woman in the movie, as Janet Flanner wrote when she reported from the Paris set for The New Yorker that the film was "peopled…with some of the most extraordinary-looking young-and-old beauties that Paris has seen in a while." Minnelli was lavish, but never vulgar. His camera admires. It does not leer, at Caron or any other woman, no, not even the lushly leer-able Eva Gabor.
But, you protest, this girl is being trained to be a prostitute. How is that acceptable to a feminist? Well, this feminist does not have a problem with consensual sex work. Much less does the Siren have a problem with sex work as a way that two old ladies once used to make a living that probably beat the hell out of taking in laundry or whatever else was open to the average woman in 19th-century France. Tante Alicia (Isabel Jeans) earned enough to live in grand retirement in a mansion with servants. Madame Alvarez (Hermione Gingold) has a much smaller budget, but she's still keeping Gigi in basic comfort. She's also supporting her daughter, Gigi's mother, who's rejected "the life" and is heard only from off-camera as she trains to be what sounds like the worst soprano since Susan Alexander stank up the opera house in Citizen Kane.
Alicia and Mamita, as Mme. Alvarez is called, are shrewd women who have made their way through life armed with their wits, and with attractiveness that is as much cultivated as it is natural. They call their own shots. When Eva Gabor's Liane, Gaston's mistress (who's pretty clearly older than he is), makes a phony suicide attempt, Tante Alicia waves it off for the dumbshow it is: "The usual way, insufficient poison." These are not, perhaps, the rules these ladies would prefer to play by. The Siren thinks in our own era, Alicia's basilisk eyes would be trained on the CAC-40, not the next wealthy protector for her niece. But it is, let's repeat, 1900. In any era, you play the hand you're dealt.
Gigi, far from being "creepily" youth-obsessed, has a complex and entrancing view of the stages of life. We see the heroine going from bewilderment at the games "The Parisians" play, to trying to play them herself. Gaston sees middle age edging closer, while he's using the same kinds of women for the same thing and wondering why "It's a Bore." Meanwhile, Chevalier's big number isn't "Thank Heaven for Little Girls." It's "I'm Glad I'm Not Young Anymore."
On the beach at Trouville, Honore is pursuing a likely (adult, for crying out loud) prospect. But he spies Mamita, with whom he once had an affair, and says, "I must tell you that you upset all my plans for the weekend! I came prepared for battle, and an old wound prevents me from charging." What follows is the movie's most tenderly romantic song, performed by two elderly people as the sun sets.
"Am I getting old?" "Oh no, not you." Excuse the Siren a sec, she's got something in her eye.
The Production Code Administration, diminished in 1958 but still in there swinging, took a long hard look at Gigi, but the Siren's sources don't indicate that what has Ms Aurthur calling Gigi's defenders "criminals" was the obstacle. Instead, what got the PCA riled up was the prostitution angle. After the usual horse-trading over the script, the objections boiled down to a single line: "To 'take care of me beautifully' means I shall go away with you, and that I shall sleep in your bed." Minnelli pleaded to be allowed to film that as written and have the censors make their call after seeing how it played. In the end, he said, Leslie Caron spoke the line so innocently that it passed without a murmur. Bad call for posterity, it seems. If Minnelli had ended on Gigi falling off a bell tower, maybe this thing would have lived up to the moral standards of Buzzfeed.
Posted by The Siren at 11:14 PM 72 comments:
Labels: Alfred Hitchcock, crabby dissent, Musicals, Oscars, Vincente Minnelli
In Memoriam: Shirley Temple, 1928-2014
It was a day that, due to some long-forgotten domestic dust-up, required distraction, and the Siren sat her boy-girl twins in front of the computer and began to frantically search Youtube for something that would quiet them down. Here's what she found.
The boy soon wandered off to fetch a toy. The girl sat quietly, so quietly that the Siren figured maybe she was too bored to move. When the video ended, Alida slid forward, pointed to one of the other videos on the sidebar and said, "Her. I want to see more of her."
We watched about a half-dozen more clips.
My daughter still loves Shirley Temple. When the Siren broke the news that 85-year-old Shirley Temple had died, she cushioned the blow by reminding Alida that we still have Adventure in Baltimore to watch on the DVR, and that surely TCM would be running a tribute day (they are, March 9th). At age 10, she's seen almost as much Temple as the Siren has.
On that first day surfing Youtube, it swiftly became obvious that Alida liked the dance routines with Bill Robinson best, proving she's the Siren's daughter all right. Alida was only four; thus the Siren was spared the need to explain that in the 1930s, the only white partner an adult black man was going to get onscreen was a little girl, and even that caused consternation. Also, since we weren't watching the whole film, the Siren also didn't have to explain The Little Colonel's treatment of its black characters, a task that even now could send the Siren to bed with a sick headache.
All the same, their dancing together was, in its way, revolutionary. When the Siren was a kid, Just Around the Corner was one of her favorites. This number still charms — Bert Lahr stretching his mouth out like an animatronic clown, and Robinson charging down that staircase is thrilling. When Robinson and Temple start to dance, their off-camera regard for each other is apparent. There are all kinds of little ways dancers have of giving each other respect. Look at how, at just before the 1:50 mark, the number's timing goes just the merest hair off, and they steady each other so fast you could miss it, if you haven't watched Just Around the Corner three dozen times during your childhood.
Temple represented not only FDR's remark about a baby who could help Americans forget their troubles, but also the movie studios' banking on wholesomeness once the Production Code came down. Financially, that was an excellent bet; in the years that Shirley Temple was the world's biggest movie star, the box office recovered from the slump it had endured in the early 1930s. It was a good bet for Temple, too, money-wise. She's said to have made about $3 million during her years at the top, although a lavish lifestyle and bad investments depleted that nest egg before she had kids of her own.
Temple's mother was by all accounts the driving force behind her child's career. Little Shirley's first films were Baby Burlesks, the misspelled title conveying the nature of the enterprise. Made at Educational Pictures, where Buster Keaton would wash up a few years later, the shorts are relics of another time when putting kids in adult costumes and scenarios was considered cute. Worse than the Burlesks themselves were the techniques, if you can call them that, used to control the tiny players. The parents weren't allowed on set, and Temple later recalled that if a child misbehaved, she was shut in a windowless room with nothing to sit on but a block of ice.
Once Temple moved on, her mother was a constant presence; Allan Dwan, who directed Temple in Heidi and Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm, recalled that Gertrude Temple would run lines with the little girl at night. Shirley was always letter-perfect by the time the cameras rolled, ready to prompt with the right line if an adult actor blew his cue. "We hated her for that," said Alice Faye, co-star in Poor Little Rich Girl. Adolphe Menjou complained that Shirley, age 6, was upstaging him in Little Miss Marker, and she did, although if you're gonna steal a scene from somebody, Adolphe's a fine choice of target.
The Siren's said this before, but give it a rest, please, with the stuff about sublimated sex in Shirley Temple movies. It makes the Siren want to coo, "My goodness, they just can't slip any subtext past you, you wised-up sophisticated old thing! Next thing you'll be telling me that war movies are homoerotic and Busby Berkeley's chorus lines remind you of fascist rallies!" It's been done.
And Graham Greene offers nothing to explain to anyone why Shirley Temple still has the ability to stop a crabby little girl in her tracks. Admittedly, it's not necessarily easy from a distance of 80 years for an adult cinephile to figure out what the big deal was. Her early vehicles make Busby Berkeley look like a model of narrative logic. In something like Bright Eyes or Captain January, all you do is watch everybody defer to Temple. Sometimes the Siren can swear the gnashing of adult actors' teeth is audible on screen, and not just Adolphe Menjou's.
The appeal lies partly in the mystery of star quality, something Sheila O'Malley describes well: "She was a phenomenal performer. It is impossible, still, to watch her movies and not get sucked into who she is being, what she is bringing to the screen." When the Siren was in acting school, the catchphrase was "give it away." Temple gave — gives — everything in a scene.
Children learn quickly and painfully that the world does not revolve around them. A kid watching a Shirley Temple movie gets a much sweeter version of life: A little girl who stops the show every time she sings or dances, and when the orchestra lays down its instruments, she runs around straightening out the adults. It was enchanting to the Siren, when she encountered Temple on TV; it shouldn't have been surprising that Alida, and a very young acquaintance of David Cairns, were also ensnared.
As Temple got older, the musical numbers became less frequent and often less elaborate. But the essential elements are still there. There's always a little girl facing off against people who are not truly evil, they are just in an extremely bad mood. Shirley knows how to fix that, through the all-conquering might of her childhood pizzazz. After singing and tapping her way through the early Fox musicals, Temple was ready to get a paralyzed child walking again in Heidi and to make a dour farm family sparkle in Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm. In the wonderful Technicolor The Little Princess, Shirley could even call someone back from the afterlife, as her father (emphatically dead in the Frances Hodgson Burnett novel) reappears in a hospital, a mite banged up by the Boer War but otherwise ready for his closeup.
Is it the least bit surprising that in Wee Willie Winkie (still the Siren's favorite) Shirley handily solves an Indian diplomatic crisis? No wonder the adult Temple could sail through Czechoslovakia's Velvet Revolution as the American ambassador.
David Cairns also mentions that Mark Cousins, in his Story of Film, alleges (David's paraphrasing) "that Temple is too performative, not natural enough." The Siren doesn't understand that at all. Critiquing Shirley Temple for being too performative is like yelling at Lassie for shedding. It's what she does. How long, oh lord, how long must we suffer the notion that the best acting, child or adult, is always "natural" or "realistic"?
Cousins' point, however, is an explanation sometimes offered for why Shirley didn't make it as an adult actress, aside from the fact that she grew up. But the Siren disagrees with those who say Shirley grew into a bad actress. She glows in Since You Went Away, playing a 13-year-old with a crush on (of all God's earthly people) Monty Woolley. John Ford thought well enough of her, years past Wee Willie Winkie, to give Temple a key role in the magnificent Fort Apache. In The Bachelor and the Bobby Soxer, her comic timing is on a par with that of co-stars Myrna Loy and Cary Grant, and the number of actors who can claim that is vanishingly small.
Temple faced three much bigger factors as she aged (and yes, that's a mighty strange thing to write about an actress who basically retired when she was 22). The first was poor script quality; Ronald Reagan all but apologized for That Hagen Girl in his autobiography. And that problem probably stemmed from this one: Nobody knew what to do with Temple. She was still lovely, but the movies that made her name were already associated with a vanished time. There was a war on, and then it was over, but people still remembered the Temple of lollipops and animal crackers. Mickey Rooney, one of but a handful of child stars who ever experienced Temple's level of fame, managed to make some highly credible noirs. When Deanna Durbin tried that in Christmas Holiday, even decent box-office receipts couldn't persuade anybody that here was her future.
Hence factor number three: On some level Temple, like Durbin, had had enough.
Who can blame her for that? There's something sad about such professionalism at a young age, the idea of a little girl crying when the director calls "Action," instead of over spilled ice cream or a playroom squabble. (Dwan said if you wanted Temple to cry, all you had to do was tell her to imagine never seeing her mother again.) But Mrs. Temple, ambitious though she was, somehow kept Shirley grounded. The greatest testimony to that is how the little girl handled adulthood when it finally arrived.
In 1998 Shirley Temple Black, looking gorgeous, was a Kennedy Center honoree. In part one, look at the ovation she gets! The joy, the affection in that audience is glorious. And when every tap-dancing kid in America comes out to perform "The Good Ship Lollipop" in part two, watch for when they cut to her in the balcony — and Shirley Temple Black, almost 70 years old, is singing along and bopping to the music, happy to still be giving happiness. That's it right there, what made her a star, and why she'll always be one. Her. I want to see more of her.
Posted by The Siren at 10:44 AM 28 comments:
Labels: Actors and Acting, in memoriam, John Ford, Shirley Temple
The Siren's Novel
Now in paperback from the Overlook Press
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Designed by a doctor. These ergonomic pens and pencils are designed to reduce muscle strain and writing stress. The ultra-comfortable, soft, contoured rubber grip is easy to grasp. Its special design can reduce the power needed to grip a pen or pencil by up to 40%. Retractable pens have a medium point with blue or black ink and use standard Pilot & reg; refills.


text:
Powered smoke extraction reduces installation costs for new London hotel
The benefits of Colt's Shaft system for extracting smoke from buildings have been exploited in the Hoxton Hotel in the City of London.
The cost of providing fire safety in a new London business hotel has been reduced using a powered smoke-extraction system. The £17 million Hoxton Hotel in the City is the first contract for which Colt's Shaft fan-powered system has been specified. It reduces the size of shaft required by 80% compared with a conventional BRE shaft using natural ventilation. The Colt Shaft requires 0.6 m2, compared with 3 m2 for the BRE shaft. The project involved Colt supplying, installing, wiring and commissioning its Shaft for this 205-bedroom, 7-storey hotel. The Shaft runs vertically through the hotel and, in the event of a fire, would use a fan system to draw smoke away from the fire-fighting core. The system was been approved for this application following tests witnessed at a demonstration rig at Colt's premises in Havant. The Colt Shaft uses pressure sensors and a variable-speed fan to prevent high negative pressures in the lobby making it difficult to open doors and drawing smoke from the fire compartment into the lobby. The consulting engineer was Building Services Design of Monmouth and the contractor was Derry Building Services of Newark.
www.coltinfo.co.uk


Pat was Managing Director of Linden Homes Southern from 1994 until Linden Homes was bought out by Galliford Try Plc in 2007. Pat continued to work within Galliford Try overseeing the successful integration of Linden Homes into the Galliford Try structure. In 2011, having reached the milestone age of 60, Pat retired as planned with 17 years' service at Linden Homes / Galliford Try.
Pat brings a wealth of experience to his role as non-executive director. In addition to his extensive construction and property development experience he has also successfully grown a small business into a multi-million pound organisation. Evolution5 benefit from Pat's knowledge, experience and scrutiny ensuring the company continues to grow and develop.
Pat is currently treasurer of the South East Branch of the Chartered Institute of Building whilst outside of the construction industry Pat is Trustee Cathedral Innovation Centre is Chairman of the Finance and Property Group at the City Centre Catholic Parish in Southampton.


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text:
Q: Unable to fetch data from external Hive cluster in a Spark job running on an EMR cluster I am executing a Spark job on an EMR cluster to connect and fetch data from tables residing in an external Hive server which is protected with Kerberos authentication. As a pre-requisite, I am downloading hive-site.xml of the remote Hive server into $SPARK_HOME/conf/ folder on the cluster. I am also copying a keytab and authenticating using kinit.
Authentication and connection to Hive metastore is getting established, and I'm able to get a list of databases with the following code snipped:
from pyspark import SparkContext, HiveContext
from pyspark.sql import SparkSession

spark_session = SparkSession.builder.appName("Hive_check")\
.config("spark.hadoop.hive.metastore.uris", "thrift://ip-xx-xx-xx-xx.ec2.internal:9083")\
.config("spark.security.credentials.hadoopfs.enabled", "true")\
.enableHiveSupport().getOrCreate()

sc = spark_session.sparkContext
sc.setSystemProperty("hive.metastore.kerberos.principal", "hive/ip-xx-xx-xx-xx.ec2.internal@MY.REALM.COM")
sc.setSystemProperty("hive.metastore.kerberos.keytab.file", "/path/to/hive.service.keytab")
sc.setSystemProperty("javax.security.auth.useSubjectCredsOnly","false")
sc.setSystemProperty("hive.metastore.execute.setugi", "true")

hc = HiveContext(sc)
db_list = hc.sql("Show databases")
db_list.show()

However, when I try to run select queries on some existing tables (can query those tables from HUE), I get the following error:
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
  File "/usr/lib/spark/python/pyspark/sql/context.py", line 433, in sql
    return self.sparkSession.sql(sqlQuery)
  File "/usr/lib/spark/python/pyspark/sql/session.py", line 723, in sql
    return DataFrame(self._jsparkSession.sql(sqlQuery), self._wrapped)
  File "/home/hadoop/anaconda3/lib/python3.7/site-packages/py4j/java_gateway.py", line 1310, in __call__
    answer, self.gateway_client, self.target_id, self.name)
  File "/usr/lib/spark/python/pyspark/sql/utils.py", line 111, in deco
    return f(*a, **kw)
  File "/home/hadoop/anaconda3/lib/python3.7/site-packages/py4j/protocol.py", line 328, in get_return_value
    format(target_id, ".", name), value)
py4j.protocol.Py4JJavaError: An error occurred while calling o75.sql.
: org.apache.hadoop.security.AccessControlException: SIMPLE authentication is not enabled.  Available:[TOKEN, KERBEROS]
        at sun.reflect.NativeConstructorAccessorImpl.newInstance0(Native Method)
        at sun.reflect.NativeConstructorAccessorImpl.newInstance(NativeConstructorAccessorImpl.java:62)
        at sun.reflect.DelegatingConstructorAccessorImpl.newInstance(DelegatingConstructorAccessorImpl.java:45)
        at java.lang.reflect.Constructor.newInstance(Constructor.java:423)

I tried copying core-site.xml and yarn-site.xml into $SPARK_HOME/conf/ to resolve this issue. But now, I'm unable to create spark session itself. The program gets stuck for over 15 minutes with no logs at SparkSession....getOrCreate() step.
Is there any other configuration I'm missing? What could be the possible reason of getting connected to hive metastore but not able to fetch the data from the tables?

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
Pietrowice Wielkie  () is a village in Racibórz County, Silesian Voivodeship, in southern Poland, close to the Czech border. It is the seat of the gmina (administrative district) called Gmina Pietrowice Wielkie. It lies approximately  west of Racibórz and  west of the regional capital Katowice.

The village has a population of 2,400.

Gallery

References

External links

 Official page in German and Polish

Pietrowice Wielkie

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


text:
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The The Art of Dining Formal Dining Room Group by Pulaski Furniture at Northeast Factory Direct in the Cleveland, Eastlake, Westlake, Mentor, Medina, Macedonia, Ohio area. Product availability may vary. Contact us for the most current availability on this product.
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The Tredegar project started in November 2012 and was complete by August 2013. We successfully acquired the Edwardian property at auction from Queen's University in Mile End. The property sitting on Tredegar Square had been used as student accommodation for the last few decades. The 3 bedroom terraced property consisted of a ground floor, first floor with a small garden. We managed to get planning permission to enhance the property with a basement and a loft extension, creating a fully modernised 5 bedroom, 4 bathroom, double living room, open plan kitchen dining house.
The property was sold before completion of the project for the full asking price to a private buyer who wanted to secure an address on the very desirable square.


text:
Culture Change Underway In Siloam Springs
Posted 9:42 pm, August 25, 2018, by Andrew Scaglione
SILOAM SPRINGS (KFSM)--Brandon Craig understands the task ahead of him. After all, week one marks his 150th high school game coached.
Craig is looking to turn around a Siloam Springs team that has won just three games over the past two seasons.
"We inherited a 2-8 football team, we're trying to change that obviously, the culture," Craig said. "Building excitement around the program, getting involved in the community."
Prior to coming to Northwest Arkansas, Craig went 77-34 in nine years at Oologah High School in Oklahoma and 13-13 over four seasons at Campus High School in Kansas. With an overall record of 96-53, Craig is ready for his toughest challenge to date.
"He's awesome, he's got a lot of energy. He's definitely flipping things around in Siloam and I'm really enjoying him," senior running back Kaiden Thrailkill said. "It was kind of not a lot of hope the last few years but with Coach Craig he's definitely installed a lot of hope in us."
"He's more interactive and he gives us more energy," said senior defensive leader Chase Chandler. "It's more one on one than talk to you and not really get back to you that much. But if I ask him a question he replies or we have one on one contact after practice."
That personal nature has won over the team already, as the Panthers ready for their first game at Pryor, a school just 30 miles east of Craig's last stop in Oologah. There's still some kinks to work out before August 31 rolls around.
"I love practice, I really do," added Craig. "I mean, I'm excited about practice each day. I teach tempo and energy and getting to where we need to be fast. Friday nights may mean more to the kids but to me it's all about practice."
With 14 starters back including a skilled seniors Landon Ellis at quarterback, Thrailkill in the backfield and Primo Agbehi at wide receiver, the culture could already be shifting for the better.
"They're going up fast just because it's a different atmosphere," Chandler said. "You can tell at practice, everybody is in a different mood and everybody is happy."
Some other notable games outside of the season opener include a matchup with Van Buren on September 14, one of the two teams Siloam beat last year. The Panthers also host defending state champion Greenwood on October 5th
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